very poorly designed crossing
Speaking as someone from Canada, who has never driven in a place with crossings like that, I would call the signage (at both the crossing type in the PDF and the JPEG) *very* poor. I would probably notice the train tracks, but only because I notice more obscure things than most. Things wrong with the way these crossings are set up:
- Nowhere on the "stop/look/listen" sign does it say "train." I think the words "Warning! Train!" would be *far* more effective. "stop/look/listen" actually implies a minor hazard (e.g. "wet floor"), since we're told to do that for everything nowadays. If I came across a sign like this unexpected, I would read through the entire thing and still have no idea what it's about (i.e. what am I stopping/looking/listening for?). I would think something along the lines of "OK, some moron put an elaborate and silly gate in the middle of nowhere" and I would feel as shocked as this woman to find train tracks in between the gates -- and my very next thought would be "Why the hell isn't this crossing marked?!" -- compare with a typical Canadian crossing: http://static.flickr.com/56/189128767_ef9841d123.jpg
- The triangular railway sign in the JPEG is easily misinterpreted to mean "gate" or "fence" -- why are the tracks asymmetrical? It looks like a picket fence. It also should say "RAILWAY CROSSING" or something on it. That this sign is NOT present in the crossings in the PDF tells me that Britain has no universal sign for railway crossings. WTF? The crossing in the JPEG is actually made considerably more dangerous by the presence of the gates, because the gates obscure the view of the train tracks. The whole affair with the rickety second-hand traffic light looks cobbled together and not nearly important enough to imply trains -- compare another typical Canadian crossing: http://images.worldofstock.com/slides/TRT1383.jpg (I don't think I've ever seen an active crossing that didn't have those big, imposing-looking lights.)
- Echoing a previous comment, why the heck are there latching, manually operated gates in front of these crossings anyway? The only explanation that comes to mind is that it's for livestock -- but still, in Canada we use cattle-guards (which you can drive over without having to get out of the car) for that kind of thing.
For the record, I almost never side with the victim in cases like this -- but in this case I really feel that Britain has a huge railway safety issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
~Felix.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
